We're not panicking in a sense of we're not doing some good things and we can't be a good football team. -- Ron English

The record may not be what Eastern Michigan had hoped, at 1-3 four games into the season, but the Eagles are staying the course.

Eagles coach Ron English said this week that his team used its bye week to refocus on fundamentals -- in lieu of making any changes in personnel or scheme -- heading into a Saturday trip to Buffalo.

“We’re not panicking in a sense of we’re not doing some good things and we can’t be a good football team, and we’re not making a lot of wholesale changes,” English said Monday on the MAC coaches teleconference. “We’re just trying to play the best players and get them better at what they’re doing.”

After winning its opener against Howard, an FCS team, Eastern lost three straight going into its bye week.

The first two were on the road against BCS opponents Rutgers and Penn State, and EMU took solace in the fact that its combined halftime deficits was 14 points.

“They really jumped on us and that thing got out of control,” English said.

Following its worst loss of the season, Eastern used the subsequent bye week to take a step back. After reviewing film the following day, the Eagles took the next two days off, and only participated in running exercises on Wednesday.

They didn’t return to practice until Thursday and Friday, when they competed in “short, brisk” practices of an hour and 20 minutes.

“The last game, so much stuff happened that we just wanted to get the guys settled down and get them back into executing their technique and fundamentals and executing the base offensive and defensive things that we’re asking them to do,” English said.

The work in those practices included basics for each position group, including addressing some of the dropped passes by EMU receivers and tackling by a defense that had several missed tackles on long touchdown runs against Ball State.

The Eagles will play the first of two straight road games Saturday (noon, WEMU radio) when it faces a Buffalo team that is 2-2, but is coming off a 41-12 win over Connecticut -- the same team Michigan beat by just three points a week earlier.

“I think they caught them at just the right time coming off that Michigan game. They just looked like they were really ready to play, got a lot of turnovers, did a great job on special teams and defense.”